


Little Monster

by Polomonkey



Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: Brotherly Love, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Torture, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 17:11:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5635108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polomonkey/pseuds/Polomonkey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leo is held captive by Silas. Max comes to rescue his brother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Little Monster

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Clea2011](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clea2011/gifts), [daroh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/daroh/gifts).



> Just a tiny little fic to fill my hurt/comfort bingo square 'dungeons'. The Leo whump is for Clea and the Maxie rescue is for Daroh :)

The room below Silas’ chop shop is called The Dungeon. So called because it’s where all the broken dollies go to rot, or so Silas gleefully tells Leo as he ties him to the wall.

“We never had a human down here before.”

Leo almost laughs. They haven’t got a human down here now.

It’s lucky he’s not human. A human might not survive what Silas puts him through over the next eight hours. Lucky Leo lives through it all; the beatings and the torture, the cigarette burns and the broken bones. 

Silas figures it out pretty quick, he’s only been there two hours when he starts to power down, and Silas sticks a finger in his side to find the wire poking out.

“What are you?” he says, and there’s wonder in his voice.

Leo doesn’t answer and Silas kicks him, again and again, until the pain is a sheer white light in his eyes and he screams out “I don’t know! I don’t know what I am! I don’t know!”

Everything fades and Leo welcomes oblivion for a few precious seconds. Then Silas plugs him in and he’s dragged back to his own personal hell.

Silas isn’t a scientist; isn’t an intellectual. He’s a synth hacker and he exhibits both a professional interest and a vicious satisfaction in taking Leo apart.

He tries to hack Leo’s code and when he can’t understand it, he hacks his body instead. Attempts to see how far the limits of Leo’s endurance go, how he responds to pain, at what point his machine side reacts to the violation of the human. 

Leo gives into screaming after a while because stoicism’s no use here. There are no prizes for bravery. Silas seems to enjoy the sound of his misery.

“Perhaps what you are is a monster,” he muses as he tugs at the wires in Leo’s side. “Cry for me, little monster.”

And Leo does.

But not for long. Because all of a sudden the door’s flying off its hinges and his brother is standing there in front of them. And Leo can finally slip into the darkness.

 

***

 

Max has morals. Not the code programmed into all Synths to stop them hurting humans or ensuring they obey. These are principles he came up with himself, principles he lives by. Be kind to other people. Protect your family. Don’t lie, cheat, or steal.

So he doesn’t want to break into the holiday home. Leo wouldn’t think twice about it but Max is not Leo and he knows it’s wrong. But he doesn’t have a choice this time. Leo needs warmth and he needs food and he needs medical attention; and Max can’t give him any of those things in the cold warehouses and cars they’ve been living out of the last few weeks.

Still, he makes a note of the window he has to smash to get inside and resolves to send some money to the owner one day. He hopes they’ll understand that his brother needed the house more than they did, and that they’ll forgive him somehow.

Leo is only half-conscious as Max patches him up. He’s feverish with pain; shaking and rocking in anguish every time Max touches him.

It makes Max hurt, somewhere deep inside. This wasn’t meant to happen, not to Leo. When would the world stop tormenting his brothers and sisters? When would it ever be enough?

Mending Leo’s cuts and scrapes, rubbing cream on the burns, setting the broken bones; that’s the easy part. The waiting is what’s difficult. Max tucks Leo into the double bed upstairs and then climbs in beside him. He takes one of Leo’s cold hands in his own and holds it tight. He prays to the human God he doesn’t believe in that his brother will recover.

Leo has nightmares all night. He mumbles Max’s name in his sleep, and Niska’s, and Fred’s. But Mia’s most of all; he pleads for her like a child. Max hasn’t allowed himself to think about what Silas said yet, about how they wiped Mia clean. He has to be strong for Leo and yet there’s a ball of grief lodged deep in his chest that tells him his sister might be gone forever.

He won’t say any of this when Leo finally wakes. One of them needs to keep hope alive. Leo can’t be allowed to despair.

Be kind. Don’t lie, cheat, or steal. Protect your family.

It’s the third one that Max believes the most. And when Leo’s eyes blink open just before dawn, Max feels an overwhelming rush of love flood through him.

“I found us a house, Leo,” he says. “You’re badly hurt but I’m making you better.”

Leo grips his hand under the sheet.

“Mia…” he whispers.

“We’ll find her,” Max promises, because it has to be true, he’ll make it true. 

“We have to go,” Leo says and he’s already struggling to stand.

Max holds him down with a gentle hand.

“Not yet,” he says softly. “You won’t make it far like this.”

Leo looks like he wants to fight, but then he slumps back onto the bed.

“Silas knows what I am. He’ll tell someone.”

“Silas is dead,” Max says simply.

Leo looks at him for a long moment.

“Good,” he says, and then he starts to cry.

Max is moving in an instant, gathering Leo up in his arms, holding him close.

“He hurt me, Maxie,” Leo sobs. “He said I was a monster and he hurt me.”

Max presses a kiss to Leo’s forehead.

“He was wrong,” Max says. “And no-one will ever hurt you again. I’ll make sure of it.”

And he rocks Leo in his arms until morning comes.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [ART: Family](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5648524) by [LFB72](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LFB72/pseuds/LFB72)




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